Tanzania ramps up natural gas production
What you need to know:
- The corporation anticipates a significant increase in demand for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as more vehicles are converted from petrol to natural gas.
Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is ramping up natural gas production by 80 million cubic feet (cf) in the next year to meet surging demand.
The corporation anticipates a significant increase in demand for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as more vehicles are converted from petrol to natural gas.
The rise will also be fuelled by the planned increase in the number of factories that use natural gas to power their industrial production activities and an anticipated increase in demand for the resource in neighbouring countries.
As such, the TPDC said yesterday that it will start production at its second quarter project in the Ruvuma Ntorya block, which will produce 60 million cf, and expand production at its Mnazi Bay site by 20 million cf more in the next year.
“The aim is to create capacity ahead of demand to ensure that the nation becomes independent in the energy sector due to the continued increase in demand for vehicles, homes, and industries, as well as being a source of support for countries in East Africa and Southern Africa,” said TPDC’s board chairman Ombeni Sefue.
Mr Sefue said that yesterday, when the board members visited the construction project of CNG mother station along Sam Nujoma Road, the organisation in the exercise of access residents at Ruvuma who qualify for compensation had reached 98 percent.
According to the natural gas sub-sector performance report for the year ended June 2023, natural gas consumption and supply increased compared to the previous financial year due to an increase of new households’ connections, industries, CNG-Vehicles, power plants, and the increase of power generation from existing gas-fired power plants.
Natural gas consumption during the period under review was 63,273.06 cf, compared to 62,995.38 cf in the previous year.
The plan to increase production comes at a time when the governments of Uganda and Tanzania are in negotiations looking into the possibility in the gas area, especially for vehicles.
“Tanzanians should not worry about the availability of natural gas; our young people are working day and night to ensure that the government’s goals of increasing production are fulfilled; there are many ongoing projects for expansion and exploration,” he stressed.
He mentioned another ongoing project, including that TPDC is continuing with preparations for the drilling of gas exploration wells in the Songosongo block, as well as completing the first phase of taking information in the Eyasi Wembere block.
“We believe the construction of this mother station is the beginning of ending the challenges of queuing at stations.
I call on Tanzanians to continue installing gas systems in their cars or buy cars that already have such systems,” he said.
Regarding the CNG mother stations, plant manager Mr Aristides Kato said that the project reached 35 percent of civil works and is expected to take place by the end of this year.
He said the station will save the other three located in Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) and the industrial area at Zegereni and other neighbouring regions, whereby the special tank where special tanks will take CNG and deliver it to those substations.
According to him, per day the stations at Sam Nujoma Road will have the capacity to serve between 1000 and 1500 vehicles per day, and the construction costs will be Sh14 billion.
“We are asking the owners of factories in Dar and beyond to take advantage of the opportunity of CNG for commercial use such as electricity generation and running plants since the gas will be available in the simplest way,” he said.
However, he advised vehicle owners who have converted to gas to ensure they get advice from the professional garages in case of a problem.
So far, at least 5,000 vehicles have been converted from petrol to CNG.
Besides, several large-scale manufacturing facilities in Dar es Salaam use natural gas in their production processes.
